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Large Prints – Part 2.

Silver Print on Matt

This post is carrying on from yesterdays,explaining the process of printing my work on large paper (20 x 24 inches). Once the chemicals and negative are ready its time to start focusing the image on the enlarger.

It is very important to keep the image steady when focusing. The grains should appear quiet large under a microscope because of the size of the print. To me they looked like little bugs. Once these grains are spotted then the image is in full focus and ready to be printed. Firstly to find the time I make time strips of around 4 seconds each going up to about 24 seconds. This then gives me a strong idea of what time I need for the perfect exposure.

I always shoot with a high contrast and when shooting large I have to shoot with the highest possible which is number 5/5. This creates the rich, deep blacks and the bright, vibrant whites. The printing can be quite a challenge as the paper is so big it takes a while to move and drain. Each print has taken about an hour to do because of these intricate details but the large-scale and hard work has paid off because the detail it produced was, I think, particularly stunning. The photo is of a section of one of the images, and is still wet which is why it’s incredibly shiny.